Stretchman
New Member
Nowadays, it seems to be the norm that everything is pasteurized, processed under heat, or chemically altered to prevent spoilage. There are a number of people who are great detractors of these processes. The issue that I have is that while these people criticise science for evolving and attempting to better our lives, they have a tendency to belittle the consequences of not doing this in the days when it was first developed.
Everyone says that this is better, or that is better, but in the old days, when refrigeration wasn't the best, and processing was a much dirtier process, the risk of infection without stabilization of fats and oils led to many diseases. Including salmonella, E. Coli, TB, strep, and probably some other variants that are for the most part, either dormant or now extinct due to mass pasteurization and better sterilization.
Even though we live in a time when morbid obesity runs rampant, we are outliving our ancestors by almost a lifetime in good health. We are still living longer than we used to 100 or 200 years ago. And science is one of the things that allows us to. The other is we are conscious of our environment and are doing something to change it.
20 years ago the low fat diets were all the rage, and based on the researcch available, they were the best way to lose weight.
Now, things have changed, and dietary considerations along with them. Of course, how easily we forget that there are times in the history of our planet when people would have killed for a loaf of bread, now low carbers are detracting from the fact that bread became a staple of the diet. I wonder if there was anyone who was overweight in Somalia when people were starving to death? I wonder how far I would have gone for a PBJ then, were I there?
So bear in mind, that we are all part of a huge, and evolving experiment designed to improve our quality of life as human beings. We may learn from this that there is an even better way to do what we want. If so, should we detract from the accomplishments of our predecessors who were also on the cutting edge of discovery? They too used science to improve life, and overall, they did. People take for granted the reasoning behind what they did, and why today it's harder to see.
Again, better sterilization and preservation allow us more latitude than there used to be. Back in the days, shelf life was just plain good common sense for inexpensive preservation of food that we would need to make it through the year. So canning, heating, processing, and even those much maligned trans fats were necessary evils in the days of let's say WW 2, where getting food to our troops was a priority. The same can be said of any place else where famine, disease, and unsanitary conditions are prevalent.
And that, my friends, is food for thought. Learning from our mistakes is important to success. Forgiving the mistakes of the ones who walked this path before us simply makes us better men.
Stretch
Everyone says that this is better, or that is better, but in the old days, when refrigeration wasn't the best, and processing was a much dirtier process, the risk of infection without stabilization of fats and oils led to many diseases. Including salmonella, E. Coli, TB, strep, and probably some other variants that are for the most part, either dormant or now extinct due to mass pasteurization and better sterilization.
Even though we live in a time when morbid obesity runs rampant, we are outliving our ancestors by almost a lifetime in good health. We are still living longer than we used to 100 or 200 years ago. And science is one of the things that allows us to. The other is we are conscious of our environment and are doing something to change it.
20 years ago the low fat diets were all the rage, and based on the researcch available, they were the best way to lose weight.
Now, things have changed, and dietary considerations along with them. Of course, how easily we forget that there are times in the history of our planet when people would have killed for a loaf of bread, now low carbers are detracting from the fact that bread became a staple of the diet. I wonder if there was anyone who was overweight in Somalia when people were starving to death? I wonder how far I would have gone for a PBJ then, were I there?
So bear in mind, that we are all part of a huge, and evolving experiment designed to improve our quality of life as human beings. We may learn from this that there is an even better way to do what we want. If so, should we detract from the accomplishments of our predecessors who were also on the cutting edge of discovery? They too used science to improve life, and overall, they did. People take for granted the reasoning behind what they did, and why today it's harder to see.
Again, better sterilization and preservation allow us more latitude than there used to be. Back in the days, shelf life was just plain good common sense for inexpensive preservation of food that we would need to make it through the year. So canning, heating, processing, and even those much maligned trans fats were necessary evils in the days of let's say WW 2, where getting food to our troops was a priority. The same can be said of any place else where famine, disease, and unsanitary conditions are prevalent.
And that, my friends, is food for thought. Learning from our mistakes is important to success. Forgiving the mistakes of the ones who walked this path before us simply makes us better men.
Stretch